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Rockets Patrick Beverly not apologizing to Russell Westbrook

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Before the Houston Rockets' practice on Friday, Patrick Beverley scooped up his phone and started to scroll his mentions on Twitter. Russell Westbrook needed knee surgery, and the angry online mob had come calling for the Rockets rookie in cyberspace.

"Get off it," the Rockets trainer chastised Beverley. "And stay off until the playoffs are over."

Beverley barely blinked. Bring it on. He can take it. He can take it all. He's sorry Westbrook suffered a torn meniscus on Thursday, but Beverley apologizes for nothing. When Westbrook slowed down to call a timeout in Game 2, Beverley accelerated, lunged for the steal and crashed into Westbrook's knee.

Beverley plays fast and faster, plays forward with the desperation of an unmistakable truth that hangs over him like the basketball reaper: He doesn't want to go back.

"I want to go against Russell Westbrook again and battle him again," Beverley told Yahoo! Sports by phone on Friday evening. "I didn't try to hurt him, but that play was something I've tried in the past, a play that worked against the Suns earlier in the season – and it's a play that I'm going to continue to try again."

In these NBA playoffs, there is no more hardened, no more sturdy rookie than Patrick Beverley. More and more, he's become an indispensable part of these Rockets. With Jeremy Lin going down in Game 2, Beverley had his best game of his season with 16 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two steals in the narrow loss to the Thunder.

As an unsure, unsteady 20-year-old, Beverley packed his bags and went to the Ukraine in 2009. Across three seasons overseas – from the Ukraine to Greece to Russia – he choked on tear gas, ducked firecrackers and waited out smoke bombs in the locker room. He absorbed a coin ricocheting beneath his eye, opening a cut and leaving him to shoot his free throws with blood gushing down his cheeks.

"The one good thing about playing back here is that the fans can't really get to you," Beverley said.

Out of the West Side of Chicago, where he had gone against Derrick Rose his entire life, he found himself needing to leave Arkansas weeks before the start of his junior year. He confessed to handing a paper into a class that someone else had written, and he didn't want to sit out a full season when the university suspended him.

Once Beverley decided to try to make his way overseas, his agent, Kevin Bradbury of BDA Management, had a plan: Get Beverley the proper tutelage, the right coaches, the right point guard mentors. For Beverley to get to the NBA, Bradbury understood he needed to transform from a shoot-first combo guard into a polished playmaker.

In the Ukraine, Beverley played for an ex-NBA assistant, Bob Donewald Jr., and "guys who were as old as my mom, 36, 37…" Beverley even won the Ukraine's second-division dunk contest.

"Pretty good dunkers over there," he said. "I won it with the dunk Nate Robinson did in the [NBA contest] that year, jumping over a 7-footer."

The Lakers drafted him in the second round in 2009, traded his rights to Miami, and Beverley, with the arrival of LeBron James and Chris Bosh, was the final cut in training camp. This time, Bradbury sent Beverley to Olympiacos in Greece to play behind Theodoros Papaloukas, the greatest Euroleague point guard ever. They played for Greek and Euro titles. They played in hellacious environments against Turkey, the blood war of all basketball blood wars.

"I learned so much," Beverley said. "I learned to be responsible for my craft. I matured over there. I wouldn't change anything about my path here. It's made me who I am."

Halfway through this NBA season, the Rockets worked a buyout to leave Russia, and he finally reached the NBA. General manager Daryl Morey and assistant GM Gersson Rosas had scouted him forever, brought him into Houston for workouts and signed him to a three-year deal to get him out of Spartak in Russia.

Now, Beverley promises to be a target for these Thunder. Westbrook is seething over the foul – "irate," a source close to him said – for what he considered an unnecessary, even a dirty, play. Beverley wants Westbrook to understand something: He didn't want him out of this series, but in it. He's been waiting a long, long time to get a chance to compete with the best guards in the NBA and wants him again, wants him soon.

"I want to play him again," Beverley said. Yes, Patrick Beverley pushed hard at Westbrook, pushed through the referee's whistle and ultimately into his right knee. Beverley started a long way from here – too long ago – and has worked up a lot of speed, a lot of momentum. There's no stopping him now.
Whatever everyone else thinks is the proper etiquette, the way people are supposed to treat superstars, Patrick Beverley just knows this about himself: He's lurching forward, full speed. No going back now, no going back ever.

It was a basketball play, don't knock a guy for effort. It happens every thing you do, accidents happen, regardless of 200 games, 40 minutes a night, Olympics or no Olympics. It happens , it was an accident, i don't think all the games Westbrook played has anything to do with the injury. Rubio tore his ACL bumping knees with Kobe, just wrong place at the wrong time. It happens, it's unfortunate, but it happens.

It was a basketball play, don't knock a guy for effort. It happens every thing you do, accidents happen, regardless of 200 games, 40 minutes a night, Olympics or no Olympics. It happens , it was an accident, i don't think all the games Westbrook played has anything to do with the injury. Rubio tore his ACL bumping knees with Kobe, just wrong place at the wrong time. It happens, it's unfortunate, but it happens.

Bro if you or I bumped our knees like that nothing would happen except a sore knee. It's the wear and tear that leads to these slight knocks causing severe damage.

I don't think its wear and tear. I mean it is but i think its they're footwear. They've been playing 82 games a year for awhile now but the injuries are starting to get more frequent and severe. So what changed? I'm a running specialist and the current trend in footwear is lightweight, lighter, lighter, lighter. The problem is that in order to make a shoe lighter you have to take something out of it. The uppers are thinner, soles are too flexible and less supportive. Meshes reduced. So these ball players feet aren't secure, heels moving around and their ball sneakers are flexing in ways that the feet or legs and knees can't react to. The vendors are constructing these basketball sneakers like running sneakers. But running is just a forward motion and the dynamic motions of basketball are not good for these new trendy light weight sneakers.

True but the game has also changed a lot in the last few years to become much faster paced, more run and gun and probably more wear and tear on the court and in the practice gyms. I mean is anyone surprised at the injury troubles in LA with MDA as the coach?

Beverly is one of those guys you want on your team. I'd take a guy like that over a lot of the more "talented" guards out there because he's willing to put in the effort, to do whatever the **** it takes. He doesn't take the position he is in for granted and his mentality is that of a warrior. Westbrook is a bit of a diva imo, not unlike rondo. Him 'seething' about the injury/foul/play just makes him seem like even more of a cry baby.